1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic documents and, more particularly, to tools for assisting a user during the viewing and editing of electronic documents.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modem Web browsers, such as Internet Explorer from Microsoft Corporation, provide support for the versatile and powerful markup languages and standards in use today, such as XHTML (eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language), VML (Vector Markup Language), Cascading Style Sheets, Document Object Module, and scripting. These technologies allow software applications to be downloaded over the World Wide Web to a user's computer and run in the user's browser.
Among the many new businesses that are taking advantage of the capabilities of the Web are printing service providers that provide document design and printing services for users desiring to obtain quantities of high quality, color documents of the type that the user is not capable of producing with the printer systems typically connected to most computer systems. These printing service providers typically provide their customers with the ability to access the printing service provider's web site, download product templates and a product design program, create a customized markup language document in the browser of the user's computer system, and upload the document to the printing service provider's server for subsequent printing. Web-based printing service providers will also typically retain documents created by users for a period of time in case a user desires to review or edit a document created earlier.
One network-based product design system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,247,011 entitled “Computerized Prepress”. The patent discloses a document-authoring tool that is downloaded from a server and runs in the client browser. The tool allows the user to create a markup language version of a product intended for uploading to the server for subsequent printing. Another system is disclosed in co-pending and co-owned U.S. application Ser. No. 09/557,571 entitled “Managing Print Jobs”, which is hereby incorporated by reference. The system discloses a downloadable editing tool that allows a customer to create and edit WYSIWYG markup language documents in the customer's browser. The system makes a number of pre-designed product templates available for customer viewing, downloading, and customizing. The customer can upload the electronic document to a server and place an order for production of the printed products.
For some types of documents being viewed and edited by a user in the user's browser, the user can easily determine the configuration of the document and the area of the document currently being edited. For example, business cards and standard size postcards are relatively small documents. Images of these documents can usually be displayed in full-size, and sometimes larger, on the user's display screen without cropping of the document image. This allows the user to see the entire side of the document at one time while editing or reviewing the document. The typical user involved in designing these types of documents has no difficulty keeping track of where edits are being performed. This is not necessarily the case with larger format documents.
For documents having larger dimensions, it is likely that the user will not be able to edit the document while the entire document is displayed on the user's screen. If the user zooms out to be able to see the edges of the document, the text will be reduced to a degree that makes it difficult or impossible to read. If the user zooms in to be able to focus on a particular area of the document, the document will become cropped such that only a portion is visible to the user on the user's display. For larger format documents, therefore, there will be many times when the user will be seeing only a portion of the document being edited. Some, or all, of the edges of the document will not be visible to the user.
One example of this type of relatively large document is a presentation folder intended to accommodate unfolded 8½ by 11 inch or metric A4 paper stock. The area of the folder to be printed is typically created as a single large design. After printing, the printed design is cut, folded and glued to create a folder having a front and back cover and two inside pockets. Prior to the post-printing operations, the flat printed design will be over 20 inches wide and over 16 inches in height. When designing the folder, the user will typically desire to place text, images, logos or other content on both the front and back covers of the folder as well as on the flaps that will form the inside pockets. Because of the size of the folder and the post-printing operations that will be performed, some users designing such a document may have difficulty visualizing the appearance of the folder in its final physical form and may become confused regarding exactly where information will appear on the folder or exactly what portion of the document is currently being editing. This may slow down the design process or cause the folder designer to inadvertently place material in the wrong location or wrong orientation, resulting in an unsatisfactory product and a dissatisfied user. It would, therefore, be beneficial to the user to have a tool to assist the user during the document editing process.
Instances of displaying a reduced size version of an image as a zooming and scrolling aid to the user while the user is viewing only a section of the image are known in the prior art. For example, some software applications for viewing maps will display both a main viewing area for displaying a portion of the map in greater detail and a separate, relatively small, area for viewing an overview version of the entire map. One example of this type of system is publicly available on the Web at Concierge.com, which offers maps that are capable of zooming and scrolling. These maps are designed using Macromedia Flash from Macromedia, Inc. A main map viewing area and a second overview map area are provided. The area being displayed in the main viewing window is indicated in the overview area by a rectangle. The viewer of the map can change the information in the main viewing area by using the up/down and right/left scroll buttons or by dragging the rectangle to a new location in the overview area. The size of the rectangle increases, decreases and/or moves as the user zooms out, zooms in, or scrolls. To be able to view the maps requires the user to have proprietary Macromedia Flash software installed on the user's computer.
Another example of a reduced size image in the prior art has been used in recent versions of the Adobe Photoshop product from Adobe Systems. The Photoshop product provides both a main viewing area and a smaller version of the image being viewed. The portion of the image being displayed in the main viewing window is indicated by a rectangle displayed in the overview image. The size of the rectangle increases, decreases and/or moves as the user zooms out, zooms in, or scrolls. The Photoshop product is a proprietary application specifically designed and adapted for digital image editing.
Neither of the prior art systems referred to above is adapted to the particular problems and challenges presented in connection with assisting a user to keep track of the user's location while the user is viewing and editing an electronic document for a large format printed product having a predetermined shape and size. Therefore, a need exists for a system and method for providing a visual indication to users of where in the product the user is currently performing edit operations during the electronic document editing of large format documents.